justvinnie

I like it a lot and I am a Spidey fan. The animation is a little.... wierd for my tastes but aside from that everything is nice. Also they show the previous week's new ep as the second half hour of this week. Kinda weird....

vinnie ----> wishes he had Mary Jane Watson pining away for him. Oh wait! Did I say that out loud?

Obviously the Protoculture's mastery of genetics was far from absolute. If the Zentradi were able to be created as near-invincible soldiers, they would be a lot better than their human counterparts. Every Zentradi pilot would be an ace if it was all in the genes right? The entire Zentradi and Meltrandi fleets would be filled with Millias

There is also the point (I think someone else pointed it out) of a lack of Zentradi creativity and innovation. Cunning and skill can only take one so far. If a pilot can creatively innovate and adapt in combat situations better than a Zentradi, the Zentradi training and genetic advantages aren't really all that impressive.

I'd have to disagree. I think their mastery of genetics is close to absolute. The mere fact that they were able to genetically guide numerous planets evolutionary trends indicates so. More than anything, I don't they wanted a perfect soldier. Who will police the police if the Zentraidi are superior?

So instead of making them perfect and giving them the most powerful weapons, the PC made them normal from stock PC genes. They gave them second rate, mass produced weaponry. But they gave them unlimited numbers. Cannon fodder in the purest sense.

As for the training, I think that again has to do with the class a Zentraedi belongs in. I think that some members are capable of more "battle creativity" then others. Namely commanders and aces were given better education programming to elevated them from the common fodder.

vinnie

However, if I'm not mistaken, the main benefit of sexual reproduction (from a biological standpoint--we're all aware of the esthetic benefits, hm?) is that it both speeds the dissemination of beneficial mutations and helps suppress harmful ones.

(Side note: I think I remember reading or hearing that many protozoa which don't reproduce sexually still manage to swap genes to some extent.)

(Edit: omitted "protozoa".)

Neither sexual or asexual reproduction are better at the dissemination of "beneficial" alleles (variants of one gene, in theory we already have all our genes, just a different set of alleles). Keep in mind that asexual organisms tend to breed at a much faster rate then sexual organism. Only one organism needs to gain the beneficial allele for it to be present in the population at significant levels within hours (assuming that it confers extreme benefits).

You are correct though that sexual reproduction allows the masking of harmful alleles by genetic shuffling. The problem with this is that the allele is not eliminated. As such progenies continue to carry the gene and express it at some point. Over time without selective pressures to keep the frequencies of the allele in check, it will enter equilibrium with all it's counter part despite it's "harmfulness", an example being my myopia.

Simpler organisms undergo what is called conjugation to exchange genetic data only. Also they often have the ability to just pick up genetic information that is present in the environment that originally came from other organisms that somehow burst and spilling the DNA out.

Back on topic: The Zentraedi used cloning as their soel method of reproduction. However, they themselves are unaware of the genetic engineering principles. If what Keith says is true about their use of in vitro DNA mixing, then by chance a warrior may arise that happens to have the most beneficial alleles in him or her. However, most of the warriors would be average, unless there is a selective mechanism in effect. That may explain why so many of them sucked as warriors. Also the base gene pool must be taken in to consideration since it determnines the average ability.

However, I do not recall an instance where this was mentioned. It seems to me that the series implicitedly or explicited states that the Zentraedi are really clones of individuals. Remember when Misa sees the cloning chambers? It is also apprent I think that each Zentraedi falls in to specific class. Otherwise you would see Bodolzaa class individuals fighting as grunts and Exedol class individuals as commanders of entire fleets. It's seems too structured especially considering the militaristic nature for this to be true.

My opinion is that because the Zentraedi were cloned from exisiting members of the PCsociety, there spans a spectrum of abilities. However, the education methodology clearly is used to suppress many of the simple abilities that all societies have. Instead all education is geared towards making warriors. They after all are cannon fodder and so whether they are fit for warrior hood is not important.

vinnie

How did Shoji Kawamori earn the nickname Great Froating Head, anyway?  I've heard it a lot here, but must have missed something.

Back in December of 2001, AnimEigo was about to release their remastered SDF-Macross boxset. The had published some pics on their site to show how hard they were working to get the sets out in time for the holidays. One fo the pics was of Shin Kurokawa, who headed the remastering, holding a boxset over his coworkers who were all abjectedly bowing to the boxset. AdianK, resident photoshop guru, added a picture of Kawamori's head ripped from a Yamato 1/60 promo to this pic with added lightning effects. The lightening came from Kawamori's eyes and shot to the boxset which then shot to all of the bowing workers in a "blessing" of sorts. Because of this floating picture of Kawamori's head, he has since been called the Floating Head, but in Engrish would be the Froating Head.

There you have it.

vinnie

EDIT IN: If anyone has a copy of this picture please post it so that our newer brethen may be blessed by the Hory Froating Head.

Okay, I agree that making copies of copies would be a bad idea. We could postulate that the Zentradi have a way of preventing copying errors or of detecting faulty clones and either discarding them or at least marking them as unsuitable for further copying. However, as a general rule, without sexual reproduction, errors will build up. (I don't know how protozoans manage to avoid this problem.)

Still, I don't see why we should necessarily assume the Zentradi are made from pseudo-sexual reproduction ("mixing DNA as needed to create new soldiers from any two given soliders"), or why we should need to see "visable means of storing clone sample DNA". Where are Zentradi individuals created? Generally not on the battlefleets, it would seem. The Zentradi could be created from a master library at various centralized locations.

Nightbat and Keith do raise an interesting question: how to account for the variability between Zentradi individuals? To which I'd add, if they weren't intended to reproduce sexually, why did the Protoculture preserve both sexes?

One possible set of answers to these questions could be that (a) the sexes complement each other in combat skills; (B) the master clone database is enormous, and includes a great variety of individuals based both on specialized roles and a general principle that excessive standardization of genotypes could result in a massive vulnerability. (E.g., the way that the massive standardization of Windows PC's has made us vulnerable to computer viral epidemics.) Also © the reproduction system may be imperfect, either tending to introduce genetic errors or often providing a less-than-ideal "prenatal" environment. Thus, even though all the Zentradi may be copied from a finite set of master blueprints, the copies may show some variation in appearance and "quality". Furthermore, even identical twins can develop somewhat differently on their way to adulthood; this may contribute to why Millia is at least a couple standard deviations above the typical Q-Rau pilot.

On the other hand, Keith could be right; or perhaps rather than using two existing Zentradi as sources of DNA, the manufacturing system builds each Zentran's genome from scratch based on general parameters, but with some intentional or unintentional variability.

not true. both sexual and asexual reproduction will introduce mutations over time. Mutation is the well spring of natural selection.

All cloning will do is put the gene pool of a population into stasis, asssuming that mutations that spontaeously occur are irradicated.

vinnie

I see that they did not use the proper sculpt for the Dark Legioss.

vinnie

It's an interesting approach they're taking; although I, for one, hope we fail miserably in the real word at anything of the sort.

Why? I think it is the future of medicine. As is with any science there are ethical issues to address. Using viruses to carry genes will pave the way to gene therapy. Imagine a world where no one has to suffer any of the countless numbers of genetic disorders. Is that not worht striving for? Humans have stopped evolving due to the lack of selective pressures and better survival rates despite genetic shortcomings due to modern medical advances. There will come a point where we will have to guide our own evolution. We will have to start weeding out the deleterious genes that accumulate due the to survival of members of our society that carry that gene thanks to modern medicine. People like me would have never survived in a hunter-gatherer society due to my extremely limited vision (I'm legally blind). Only because of our "advanced" society do people like me have a chance of surviving. However in guiding our own evolution, we must ensure a diverse gene pool. Do not make everyone the same. This is kill any chance of long term species survival.

Back on topic: Using viruses to evolutionarily guide the development of humans is a great idea for sci-fi. It makes sense because you can create a series of viruses that will only become active once the proper evolutionary point has been reached. This will then allow you to guide the development of generations after generations of an organism. This time delay is necessary to allow an organism to adapt to its changing gene pool. The other thing about viruses is that they are self replicating. As such you only need to creat a few and you could genetically engineer en mass whereas to change each and every cell of every individual would be time prohibitive.

vinnie

It's all about Gundam, baby.

Sad... but true.

Thats beyond sad. IMO that show (all of them) is 1/10 as good as Macross.

couldn't agree more. The Japanese obsession with Gundam is unhealthy.

vinnie

Perhaps we should add this to a FAQ about Macross as it seems to come up all the time...

vinnie

I agree that ANBU-AonE has the best subs for both part 1 and 2. However only part 2 is available in 5.1 sound. The ANBU-AonE part one is significantly smaller in file size due in part to lower audio encoding I think though it may also use lower video encoding though I don't notice a difference. NLA anime has both parts in 5.1 with excellent video encoding. The subs aren't bad either.

vinnie

PS: Whatever happened to the Infusion version? I don't see it around anymore...

Well it certainly still ranks as cutting edge, the concept itself is not all that new. I recall reading very similar theories in science magazines and even the 'science fact' sections of popular sci-fi magazines (maybe it was Asminov, or possibly Analog?) where they talked about viruses and bacteria and such from space being a catalyst for life on Earth, or the evolution of life that already existed here. This was ages ago. Between 5-10 years ago or so.

It certainly is a nifty idea.

Ahh... I know of that theory. Unfortunately all it does is place the problem of how did life start on another planet instead of Earth. Viruses cannot be the origin of life. Why? They can't reproduce on their own. I subscribe to the RNA origin theory. RNA can both replicate and catalyze reactions including its own splicing.

The research into eukaryotic viral conjugation of genes is pretty recent. It has been known to occur in bacteria for a long time, but not in higher level organisms. Kawamori could easily write off the rise of viral vectors in modern biology as an artifact of Protoculture intervention. The truth is we don't really know how viruses can arise and evolve. It is however believed that the transposons were originally viruses that became integrated into the genome as gene shuttles. Very Protoculture-esque in the context of Macross.

vinnie

part of my theory is that transformer fans of the new generation, those who buy armada and energon are not used to shelling out. Unlike most of us who are full aware that quality costs money. When a transfan see's a quality toy he will say oooooooh but be turned off by the price and his view shall be colored negativly. Look at the response to the alternators toys, the japanese Vs American. Its all about price for them, they don't understand, its not just a matter of price it is quality. Transformers new fanbase is a group from 8 to 15 who are not mature enough to truly understand the good stuff IMHO. (for all those who are also macross fans and transfans, no insult to you as you probably know a quality toy when you see one)

So what do you say to the people who bought the Toynami Morphers? For $15 dollars a pop they sure were expensive, but the quality certainly was not there.

vinnie

EDIT IN: Or even the MPC at MSRP.

Viruses have long stump taxonomist as to their classification, being neither a living organism nor an inanimate substance. They lie between the two extremes carrying only genes necessary for infection and reproduction. It is known that phages (bacterial viruses) have the ability to shuttle genes from one host to another. In higher organisms, virus like genetic elements called transposons are also capable of turning on and off various genes by translocation. Even as I type these numerous labs across the country and indeed the world are using viruses to transfect genes, both natural and engineered. We have suceeded to use viruses in post transcriptional gene silencing by the use of siRNA.

Kawamori must have read up on a lot of biological science to incorporate such cutting edge research science into a science fictional environment. What his story proposes is not beyond the realm of possiblities. In fact, it is even currently being done by humans. This grounding in real science combined with the fantastic, great storytelling techniques, and innovative stories have made Macross a truly unique phenomenon. This is why I admire Kawamori as such a genius of his medium. Instead of threading tired paths like a hack, he chooses to be unique and different with each story. Each Macross installment may not be for everyone by this very merit.

vinnie

Why is it that whenever you have a Zentraedi ace, they always get cut down by human pilots. Max defeated Milia. Isamu is Guld superior in the cockpit. Even Kamjin was just Hikaru's equal.

Sure you are going to say that these are exceptions rather than the rule, but if exceptions exists then the Protoculture must not have had the "best" genes or could not engineer the best gene. Is this natural selection at its best?

vinnie

People who insist on paying full price for a MPC are foolish. They are garanteed to do down in price and yet it never amazes me the amount of people who preorder it for the full cost.

Why not just hedge?

I don't intend to buy the blue Legioss -- just the red and the Shadow, maybe. What I intend to do is to watch the price movement for the Blue though.

If it moves up, I will pre-order. If it goes down I will see how low it gets, and price the two I intend to get accordingly.

However, if you are a blue Legioss fan, then you're SOL'ed...

opps. I was referring to the VF-1 line which has no chance of ever going up.

vinnie

as for the MPC I was able to get the missiles off the Miria's veritech.

Then it's not a consistent design feature in the toy line. Maybe Toynami got cheap with glue. Maybe they finally thought hey that's a cool feature after seeig the 1/48. Who knows?

vinnie

People who insist on paying full price for a MPC are foolish. They are garanteed to do down in price and yet it never amazes me the amount of people who preorder it for the full cost... Some people must have too much money on their hands.

to bad it's not PC. Won't get it though it sure looks fun.

vinnie

Some of my 1/60th AMM-1 missiles have the ability detach form the missile rack maybe partly due to QC inconsistencies. The HCM and MPC have this ability as well.

The MPC AMM-1 are NOT removeable. I managed to pop one off my "Ben" MPC" but the rest are glued tight. It is not a design feature. The same applies to the Yamato 1/60.

vinnie

I like Macross Plus a lot. Kawamori uses some ingenious story telling techniques. On the surface it's such a simple mecha series, but there's so much running in the undercurrent.

I do not think that Guld ever raped Myung. He came close though...

vinnie

PS: Can you imagine watching M+ RT style with a constant narrator giving a play by play?

Apparently, I'm a dumb ass and never tried to remove the AMM-1 missles for the rack but as it turns out each of the missles are removeable. This means you can pose the craft partially loaded to simulated in mission loadout. That's really cool cause I don't think any of the other Valkyries have this feature.

Just letting everyone know since I haven't seen this mentioned before.

vinnie

I'm placing faith that those screen shots are of a beta... and that said beta will change over development.

Still, an FPS game? Why? Mospeada almost needs to be a third person action title... how can you drive a mospeada in 1st person? how can you fly a legioss and watch it manuver and transform?

FPS giant transforming robot game = lame ass

Maybe because you never get to pilot a fighter? Lame. Defeats the whole point of the game considering the enormity of the role the two fighters played in the series.

Also, as far as I know there are only 3 types of handguns ever shown in the show. There's also a rocket/grenade launcher, forearm blades, rockets and the mini rockets for the ride armors. Sounds pretty limiting in weaponry already. I'd rather play Quake or Half Life

vinnie

grow up, people.

vinnie

wow. the world really IS going down the shitter if kids can actually LIKE this toy.

I collected very few TF's as a child cause I thought many of them were ugly including the 1/55 Jetfire and Valkyries. Ugly deformed pieces of plastic and metal that were supposed to represent my favorite characters. What would I have thought of this POS if I had seen it then??? THis makes the (dare I say?) MPC look like a masterpiece.

vinnie

I may not be partial to Tommy Yune's artwork... but he's in print and apparently making money from his work. Are you? If not then quitcherbitchen. It is sooooo easy to critique people's work... heck I do it for a living. But in order for your critique to hold any worth you have to be able to show the person being critiqued "how it is done".

I don't happen to dislike this Yune piece(a litote!!!). I think it is ok as opposed to the awful MPC box art. However, I do have a problem with your reasoning that Yune's work must have merit because he is making money off of it.

As Exo said, Yune is a successful artist because he can make money from his art. This hardly means his stuff is good, just as teen pop music is hardly good and yet makes millions.

As long as you have a sense of aesthetic of what is good and what is not then you have a right to criticism. I don't have to be able to sculpt like Michaelangelo or paint like Da Vinci before I can say that some of the art at my local art gallery is amateurish. I have enough taste to recognize talent for what it is.

Yune has talent. Some of his work are quite nice. However, his talent is only in imitation. I have yet to see a Yune original that screams with talent. Only when he is imitating others do I see quality. His talent thus is limited by his creativity. He can't develop a unique style of his own that is any good as compared to the creative minds of those he imitates well. For instance look for his DYRL piece on RT.com; it is very well done, but is merely an imitation of Mikimoto. Now look at his MPC stuff or even Kiyora; the former is ugly as he tries to impart his own style to it while the latter is fine but not inspirational due to the generic style he employs.

So in closing, not only can I say Yune's work isn't all that great, I have a right to say so despite not being an artist myself.

vinnie